Harm's Way
by oneiromancer242
Summary: Peter and Jean are stuck in the Danger Room. With nothing to do but wait for someone to come help them out, they decide to play Truth, Kiss or Dare minus the Kissing and Daring.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N : Oooh, I have a lovely little pile of prompts forming! That's a wonderful thing so thanks everyone who has suggested something, if I haven't got back to you and said I won't then that means you can expect to see your idea worked into a story at some point.**

 **So here's the thing - I thought I'd try something out. I'll give you the setup and then the direction can be dictated. What I'm after is questions from you wonderful readers. Got something you always wanted to know about either Peter Maximoff or Jean Gray? Because they're stuck, and they're willing to air some fairly dirty laundry in the privacy of this little room...**

"Can you maybe stop doing that?"

Jean tried to put it gently, but the aggravating headache that was currently making her eyeballs feel like they'd been taken out and rubbed in chilli powder made it difficult, and her words came out clipped and snappish. Peter gave her a confused look,

"Doing what?"

"Everything! Tapping your foot, cracking your knuckles, chewing that damn gum, drumming your fingers, pacing, THINKING so loud!"

"Breathing?" he suggested acidly "Existing?"

"If you could, just temporarily, that would be really nice"

"Sorry I'm thinking so loudly, I'll stop trying to come up with a way to get out of here shall I? Or would you rather just stay down here until someone wonders where we are and why all the doors are locked and why the emergency power's on and –"

"Talking," Jean added, "something else it would be great if you stopped"

She'd known this was a terrible idea, wished she'd listened to that quiet sensible little thought that said she should ask the Professor if it was okay to use the Danger Room for a while. Should tell someone where they were going, and maybe even get someone in to watch, just in case something exactly like this happened. Even one of the tiny kids would have done, as long as they were smart enough to learn how to throw the override lever if something went wrong. But no, she'd done none of those things, and now she was stuck in what was basically a sealed vault with a very cranky Quicksilver. She watched him try yet again to vibrate the door hard enough to crack, groaned quietly

"Peter, this room was made to withstand a thermonuclear detonation. You're not going to just shake it open"

"Got a better idea?"

"How about sit down *quietly* until someone finds us and unlocks the doors?" she suggested. He sneered at her, over by her side suddenly and shaking her hand, saying with painfully fake cheerfulness

"Hi! Don't think we've met! Keeping still, being quiet, not really in my skill set"

Nevertheless he sat down on the floor beside her, and managed to be still for an entire two and a half seconds before he had started tapping one foot against the other again. If Jean hadn't felt so drained she would happily have paralysed him.

"Why are you so mad at me anyway?" he asked, "This wasn't my fault. I was helping, you're the one who decided to turn the speed up on that trainer-bot"

She couldn't find a smart reply, and simply sunk further into her slumped position and tried not to think too hard. It was however entirely true – she had adjusted the speed control on the robot (again, something she wished she'd consulted Hank about) and she *had* been the one who'd got cornered by the thing, leaving Peter with the choice of seeing his classmate crushed under a huge metal fist or getting her out of the way. Naturally he'd chosen the latter, and much as she would have loved to blame him for it, it really wasn't his fault that said huge metal fist had then crashed with astounding force into the internal control panel of the Danger Room. The emergency shutdown had activated with such rapidity that he'd only managed to get the two of them to the external airlock before the four-foot thick steel doors had slammed closed and sealed with a hiss of pressure. Unfortunately, in the process of pulling her out of the way Peter had thumped Jean's head so hard on the floor that she'd been knocked unconscious, coming round a few minutes later to wonder if that had been payback for the time she'd rammed his thankfully very resilient head into a wall.

"I was trying to make it a proper challenge for you" Jean said quietly, "You're so fast now, those bots are no obstacle to you, I thought if I made it harder it would be good training"

"Yeah well thanks for the thought, but right now the biggest challenge we have is not dying of starvation or dehydration before someone comes to get us"

Jean tried out a laugh. Peter was pretty well known for his sky-is-falling catastrophisations, just another facet of how hot his emotions ran. When she saw that he was giving her a deadly serious look, however, she stopped.

"I'm not kidding, Jean. You might be fine, but it's probably only going to be a few hours before *I* start going into shock if I don't get food and water. There are ways in which super-speed is a lot like being the world's worst diabetic. And…" He stopped, glanced over at her, "Never mind…"

"What?"

He sighed angrily, fiddled with the collar of his uniform which was digging into his chin.

"I wish I hadn't brought us in here" he said, "It's too small… I'm kinda claustrophobic"

She reached over and slipped her hand into his. His skin felt surprisingly cool and soft. When he looked up at her again, she was gazing at him gravely, offering him a weird little smile

"Me too," she admitted. "Always have been"

"I'm sorry… I was trying to make it to the door, but – "

"It's okay," she said consolingly, gave his hand a little squeeze, "We'll be alright. It's got to be nearly three, classes will be over in a couple of hours and the Professor will notice we're missing. Someone will come soon"

He made a doubtful little noise, but tried out a smile of his own.

"How's your head?" he asked, "You must have smashed down pretty hard, I didn't do that on purpose"

"I know – and it's fine. Well it feels like I have a vice on my brain, tell the truth, but I'll be fine. I'm reasonably sure I'm not concussed. Thanks for not letting me get squashed"

"Hey, what are X-Men for if not that, huh?" he muttered. Fell silent. Jean could feel his fingers twitching, thought she could even feel his rapid pulse in his fingertips. Noticed that he was worrying his bottom lip between his teeth just a little bit.

"Jean?" he said quietly, "I know your head hurts, but will you talk to me?"

"Sure… what about?"

"Anything," he squeezed his eyes shut. Seemed to be trying to concentrate on breathing evenly, "whatever comes into your head. Just… it'll help, okay?"

Jean usually blocked out his thoughts as hard as she could when she was around Peter, partly because he found telepathy intrusive and partly because his crazily fast mind tended to give anyone who could read it headaches if they were around him too long without a block. Even with the extent of her powers, she couldn't entirely drown it out, could sometimes hear his thoughts as if he was shouting them at her over a crowded party, breaking through just a little. Now, she very carefully let the block off a little, let just a sliver of his mind bleed over, then shoved it back into place hard and fast. He was absolutely radiating terror – and he was a lot more than 'kinda' claustrophobic. She squeezed his hand a little tighter, searched for something to talk about, came up blank, then hit on an idea.

"Truth, Kiss or Dare, minus the kissing and daring?" she suggested. Peter looked at her blankly, "I mean – we're stuck for a little bit, and nobody else ever has to know what we say, right? So we can ask each other pretty much anything. It'll take our minds off things"

He looked a little nervous, then realised that if she felt like it Jean could go fishing around in his head for whatever she wanted, and nodded.

"You go first"

 **A/N : Leave your questions for Peter and Jean in reviews or PMs, and I'll pick my favourites to work in. Thanks for reading and in advance for your help! I do love some audience participation.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Super-long A/N : Thank you to everybody who submitted ideas and questions for this!** **MarburyBlur, Aradia Megido, gracedreamcloud, Scented Hairpin, Petra, octoberfangirl, and Arem, you all rock my socks. I hope you enjoy how I've used your ideas. Just to note, the only reference I could find to Jean's zodiac sign says she's a Taurus so I've gone with that. Peter, back in "Best I Can" had his birthday on Father's Day in 1983, which would make him a Gemini. This may not be right but it works out in my headcanon so that's where that came from.**

 **And octoberfangirl - you got your request, but it's very temporary.**

"Okay…" Jean thought, then said "Start simple – how did Professor Xavier find you?"

"Came to the door with Hank and this other guy, asked for my help" Peter smiled a little at the memory, "How he knew about me I have no idea, but he wanted me to help him out on a prison break. It was cool – I was just a kid though, and into some pretty bad stuff. Then he just kinda… left me with my Mom for the next ten years until I decided to join up on my own"

"He didn't offer you a place here?!"

"Nah… never asked him why. Maybe he didn't want a stupid klepto kid messing his school up. Actually now I think of it, that guy who was with them? The crazy dude who killed all those guards at Alkali Lake really reminded me of him. Weird, huh? What about you?"

"Oh, same really" she gave it a few minutes thought, seemed to struggle with something that for now she couldn't voice, "Xavier talked to my parents – your father too, they were working together a lot more closely then. I… I only just found out about my powers just before that"

"How?"

Jean wet her lips, turned hard, hurting green eyes on him.

"My best friend got hit by a car" she whispered, "She died, when I was right there with her and I… I felt it. I felt like I was dying too."

"Man," Peter squeezed the hand still slipped into his, "That's tough, I'm sorry. But at least you're here now right? Things have to have got a lot better now"

"Hah, with people like you around giving me headaches all the time?" she smiled, "Not likely"

Peter smiled back, but it was a doubtful smile. Quietly asked:

"Do you hate being around me?"

"No! Of course not! I…" she stopped, sighed, "You're a total pain, Peter. It's hard to keep up with you, sometimes your mind is so far ahead of everybody else that you seem like you're not paying any attention to anyone, which can be really annoying. But no, now I'm used to you a bit and learned how to tune your thoughts out, I don't hate it. You're sort of sweet actually"

"Well that's at least half nice. Thanks"

"Still a total pain, don't forget that part. Do you? Hate being around me, I mean? A lot of people do. Sometimes I can't help knowing what people are thinking and… well, most people hate that"

"When you're reading me, it feels like you're gonna find something that'll mean you never speak to me again" he said, shivered a bit and wrapped his arms around himself, "I don't hate *you*, you're great with the little kids and the team wouldn't be the same without you, but I hate it when you read my mind"

"I try not to, you know. Come here, you're cold"

He was too surprised to resist when she shuffled over and positioned him to sit between her legs, pulled him back against her body and gently held him there with her arms around his waist.

"Relax, Peter. I'm just trying to keep you warm. Though how you're cold in that suit I have no idea"

"S'that good old high-speed metabolism," he shuddered a little, tried to relax against her, "I'm too efficient, Hank says – apparently it's to do with my friction-resistance. I can cool off fast to help counteract the effects of speeding, but when I sit still I get really cold really easily. Also I'm starving, which makes me feel cold too. No spare calories to keep me warm"

"I guess I never thought about that. We all have downsides, I suppose. Though if you ask me being able to put away all the junk you do and not get fat isn't much of a downside. Oh, there's a good question – is there any kind of junk food you *don't* like?"

He thought hard about it for a long time, tried to force his muscles not to tense and shudder, to acclimatise himself to being far closer to the girl than he'd ever been before and convince himself that she was only cuddling him to stop him getting too chilly. Even so, her breath on the back of his neck was very distracting. Eventually he said

"Not really. I don't eat pork, but that's not a case of not liking it. Considering how sick I can get if I don't get enough essential grease and sugar, I guess not" he paused, thought some more, "Wait – those jelly sweets. Those aren't my thing"

"Like Haribo? I'm surprised, I love those!"

"They're too hard to chew, and they stick in my throat. Gimme chocolate over those any day"

"Oh, always," Jean agreed, gave him a squeeze, "The Aztecs worshiped chocolate you know"

"I think I might be an Aztec." He grinned, "No more food questions though, please. I think my stomach is trying to punch its way out to go look for lunch on its own"

"No kidding, I think I can feel it." She was quiet for a while, resting her throbbing head against the back of his shoulder. Had to admit that it was sort of pleasant, curling up with him like this, asking at last, "What do you think I'd find in your head that would stop me talking to you? I mean, you seem like a kind person, what's the worst thing you've ever done?"

He didn't answer, shook his head. Heaved a heavy sigh and said

"I dunno, Jean. I've done a lot of stuff I'm not too proud of"

"Like what?"

"Like… stealing. A *lot* of stealing, though I never stole anything from anybody who would really miss it. And I got into a lot of fights at school that I should have walked away from. Put my family through a lot of stress that I shouldn't have – just generally been kind of a selfish little asshole my entire life really. The worst thing though? When I first started High School I was trying to hang out with this gang of kids. Horrible kids, but they were cool and people respected them. There was this dweeby little guy, kind of like a Junior Hank, that they were always picking on. One time, they persuaded me to shut him in his own locker. He was in there for the whole afternoon"

He hung his head, obviously ashamed at himself for having done something so mean to a kid who wasn't doing him any harm.

"I felt bad about it in the end and let him out," he went on, "The other kids saw me, and after that they picked on me just as bad as the dweeb, but I'm glad I did that"

Hugging him tightly with her knees, Jean said quietly

"See? I told you you were a kind person. You wouldn't have felt bad about that if you weren't. And for the record, I'm not going to stop talking to you over that"

"What about you?" he asked quietly, "Ever do anything terrible?"

"Well… that friend of mine who died?" she said, chewed at her lip, "It was my fault. We were playing – I knew she couldn't catch that throw without running. And she ran right in front of a car. I've talked to the Professor about it, he says it was an accident, that I shouldn't blame myself. But I still feel bad about it"

"Course you do," he said, found both of her hands and took them gently, "Because you're a kind person too, right?"

Peter felt her nod her head against his shoulder, unsure if feeling weirdly comfortable sat with her like this was more or less terrible than feeling panicky about the small space. Wondered if she'd ever tell Scott, and if *he'd* ever tell Angela.

"This is getting a little heavy, isn't it?" she said, then giggled as she thought of another question "Total topic change : Tell me about when you lost your virginity"

He turned to give her the most wide-eyed look of horrified embarrassment she'd ever seen him wear, the tiniest bit of a blush highlighting his cheekbones fetchingly. Just stared at her in terror for a moment before she had laughed and said

"Okay, okay, too personal. Just when and where, no details"

"I… can't tell you that" he stammered

"Was it really that bad?"

"No! I mean, I literally can't, there's no – I've not – I.."

"Oh god I'm so sorry!" Jean finally realised why he was getting flustered, "I had no idea! I just assumed that you… well, you don't strike me as a virgin, that's all"

"Yeah, well" he said, turned away to hide the blush, "It's hard to... y'know… get with a girl when you can't stand still long enough to ask them out most of the time. Angie's my first girlfriend, and my first kiss, and if I gave you any other impression I'm afraid I just have a dirty mind and a vivid imagination"

"So you and her –"

"Have gone no further than first base as yet. Oh I am *so* going to think of something awful to ask you about Scott now! Damn, Jean, you look like such a nice kid, who knew you'd ask something like that?!"

"Well you know what they say about us firey redheads" she smirked saucily, "You need to move, my butt's going numb"

She heaved herself up and stretched out, paced around for a few minutes and frowned at him still down on the floor

"That's actually the longest I've ever seen you sit still for" she remarked, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah. Well, kinda. Just muscle cramps, I'll be okay once we get out of here." Sitting back against the wall and closing his eyes. Jean didn't like the look of him, figured it must have been at least two and a half hours since they'd got locked in. Jean had never realised before how vulnerable he was in a situation like this – on missions he always had rations with him, but didn't see the need for the belt containing power-bars, a can of soda, a roll of duct tape, his Walkman, and everything else he needed when training. Used to walking out of the Danger Room and being met by Hank with one of the revolting supplement shakes he made them drink afterward, he looked like he was really suffering. She sat back down, snuggled close to his side, resting her head on his shoulder.

"Did you ever get picked on about it?" he asked, not opening his eyes, "Your hair? It's not that common. There was a girl in my class with red hair and she got all kinds of crap about it"

"Not really. A couple of people called me stuff like 'carrot-top' but I never minded. Kids are kids, after all. They always pick on what's different. Besides I love my hair" she replied. "I bet you did though"

"M'not a redhead.." he muttered, rested his head against Jean's, "Oh, right. Sorry, the brain's going a little. I did yeah, I hated it when I was little – tried to dye it once and *that* didn't go too well. I got used to it though, when I got a bit older. Goes with my jacket, y'know?"

His head was resting heavily against hers, and when she moved to look at him fully he whimpered and almost fell sideways at the sudden removal of the body propping him up.

"Are you falling asleep on me?!"

"Kind of… just a bit woozy, I'm fine. Keep talking" he made a pathetic sound of protest as she shook him hard, finally opened his eyes again "What? I'm tired!"

"You look ill, Peter. Something tells me sleeping isn't a great idea. Don't make me drag you to your feet and walk you around because I will definitely do that before I let you pass out on me"

"You are *so* bossy sometimes," he said grumpily, but straightened up and made a valiant effort to keep his eyes open, "I just bet you're a Scorpio"

"I'm a Taurus and I don't believe in that stuff. You've got to be a Gemini though"

"Oh because I'm a twin? That's a stupid assumption"

"Actually it's not an assumption" she admitted, "Your birthday's June 19th, which makes you Gemini. I help Hank keep his records"

"I'm really not sure if it's cute or creepy that you remember my birthday" he sighed, shivered again, decided he needed to walk around for a while just to help ease off the cramps, weighed up the wisdom of that versus staying still and conserving energy. "Here's a good one though. If you could have chosen what mutant power you ended up with, would you have chosen yours or something else?"

"Definitely something else" she answered immediately, got up and joined him walking the length of the airlock and back, "Telekinesis is pretty useful, but telepathy blows. I'd have gone for something more… controllable I guess. Super-strength maybe. Or speed"

"You wouldn't like speed at ALL," he said, "It's an absolute ballache, and you wouldn't believe how fast I go through sneakers. I don't think I'd have chosen anything different though – I can't imagine myself being different, I guess. Wanda's powers are pretty cool, I don't think I'd mind swapping. But only for a while"

Jean lashed out an arm to grab him as he suddenly swayed dizzily on his feet, catching him in her arms and mis-stepping, losing her balance and falling flat on her back. Instinctively she had pulled Peter with her, and she noticed with a flush of embarrassment that she had pulled him down on top of her. For a moment they both looked a little shocked, until she'd laughed and said

"Boy it's a good thing you're not heavy. That could have hurt"

"You know what?" he said, grinned wickedly at her, noses almost touching, "I thought of another question for you"

"Go on"

"Are you gonna tell Scott about this?"

Before she could answer his lips were on hers. He'd only intended to kiss her swiftly and get up, but was surprised by the softness and warmth of her lips, felt her slip her arms around him and pull him close to her. Tangled one hand into her hair, letting silky strands slip between his fingers, getting a little lost in the sensation. Then they heard the hiss of pressure releasing, and quickly disentangled themselves and got to their feet, rushing for the door as it opened to reveal Scott, Xavier, Hank and Angela all looking deeply concerned.

"What took you guys go long?!" Peter demanded, "We've been down here hours!"

"You're welcome" Scott said sharply, "Are you okay Jean?"

She nodded. He took her flushed cheeks for happiness at seeing him, and scooped her up into his arms. Beside her Angela flung herself into her boyfriend's embrace and squeezed him hard

"Oww… careful there, I'm not so good" he groaned, "C'mon, it's about three hours past lunch and I'm dying, let's get out of here"

"Peter" the Professor said calmly, "Don't you think you owe us an explanation first?"

"Jean did it, talk to you later – bye"

Whilst he didn't tear off at his normal speed, he still dragged Angela out at a fair clip, evading Hank's grab for him and gone before they thought to go after him. The Professor sighed, looked up at Jean, who offered him a little shrug and an apologetic smile.

Walking out, glad to be able to breathe fresh air and to no longer be facing the prospect of fainting, Peter steadied himself with an arm around Angela. Walking in silence until he had suddenly chuckled a little at Jean's voice in his head hissing

 _"_ _Tell anyone about that, and you're a dead man"_

"What's up?" Angela asked, "Something funny?"

"Nah, just kinda giddy" he grinned. Leaned down and kissed her softly on the cheek. He was pretty sure he'd never tell anyone, and surer still that it wouldn't happen again. After all, what happens in the Danger Room airlock stays in the Danger Room airlock.


End file.
